Is Wayne Rooney a foul-mouthed yob — or is he simply a born winner with so much desire and ambition that he unleashes the devil inside when he scores goals that lead to winning trophies?
If we showed half the hunger the little spud face does as we limped to a pathetic 0-0 draw with Blackburn Rovers we would have won comfortably. You could say Rooney should be more professional and more of a sportsman. But I’d swap some of our uber professionalism for a snarling, swaggering striker who scores goals for fun but lapses into caveman now and again.
Instead we get very nice, respectful players who are doing their best to convince us that we will never win anything ever again. We are gutless Gunners. Arsene Wenger’s stubborness is both his strength and weakness. But his rigid mantra to play within certain financial constraints and harness and shape naturally talented youth supplemented with the odd purchase doesn’t work. Well, it does work to a certain extent if you are happy to go close in the cups and league and qualify for the Champions League and I am not saying that many teams — such as the Manchester City billionaires for instance — wouldn’t settle for that. But we are Arsenal after all. The Arsenal. The Royal Arsenal. That still means something. Just.
Ok, so the manager and the finances often come under scrutiny for the lack of trophies and woefully inept performances and, rightly so. But looking on yesterday as we blew the league title meaning we won’t win a sodding pot for another bloody year, for the first time I started to question the passion of our players.
As we overplayed in front of goal and kept possession perfectly well but lacked killer instinct, I thought back to Sunderland when we were coasting at 1-0 and Tom Rosicky I think it was missed the spot kick. They nicked a last-gasp leveller. I thought of the other game in the North East when we handed the Geordies a point after being 4-0 up. Yes. FOUR. I thought of the hapless blunder against Brum in the Carling Cup final. Of the insipid draw at home to Sunderland.
And I remembered the awful sight of Denilson in the first 45 at West Brom producing the worst display in an Arsenal shirt since the days of John Hawley and Ray Hankin. Then I glanced at my programme and saw the picture of Rocky on the the front cover as we paid tribute to our beloved No.7 on the tenth anniversary of the sad and tragic death of this favourite son of Arsenal. I reproduce the picture here. Look into his eyes. I see hunger. Determination. Desire. A will to win. A steely confidence. And a huge pride in representing the Arsenal. I have to say I can’t see many of those magnificent qualities in our current squad.
And that is a real shame.
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